Santa brought Savannah a helmet, a Kinect dance game, a Minnie Mouse, and some lotion.
Josh got a BSU football, basketball, soccer ball, and a smurf. Aaron got a Buzz Lightyear that talks and a giant tub of licorice.
Sara got a Barbie, a temple calendar, a Minnie Mouse, and some lotion. Nate got blocks and a Woody. And Owen got a pillow pet and some sippy cups.
Scott and I got a new computer to replace our old one that was coming dangerously close to crashing. There is a really sweet story behind this. Our computer has been needing replaced for a while now. It's 6 years old and is so bogged down that it has a hard time running. This past month, the fan has been failing and it crashes all the time. We really needed a new one. We took the boys with us to Staples one night this December to look at computers (the girls were at gymnastics). We found one that we loved, but we had just had to buy a new fridge and we had Christmas coming up, so Scott and I were talking about whether we could fit it into our budget. Josh came up with a brilliant idea, "You could just ask Santa to bring it to you!". I told him I didn't know if parents got to ask Santa for things, that I thought only kids got to do that.
A few days later, as I was feeding the kids lunch, I was asking the kids what they wanted for Christmas. Sara (in a tattling kind of way) said, "Josh wants a computer!". Josh instantly blushed and tried to deny it. I asked, "Josh, you want a computer?" He shyly replied, "I asked for it for you." The kids had been on a website their teachers had recommended called NorthPole.com, and there was a place to send your wish list to Santa. Josh had asked Santa for a computer for me. I found that so sweet, that it brought tears to my eyes. It worked--Santa brought me a computer.
We started off early--6:30 am. (We let Owen stay asleep, so he missed all the excitement. He didn't wake up till about 8:30.)
And then the fun began....
Santa also brought a trampoline to all of the kids. They had to wait till the sun came up before they got outside to enjoy it.
After discovering everything Santa brought, it was time to open presents. The kids had presents from both sets of grandparents, Savannah had used some of her own money to buy each of her siblings a gift from the dollar store, and then we let the kids draw names and each bought one present for the brother or sister they were assigned. Some of the favorites included: a Roaring Springs family season pass from Grandma and Grandpa Howell, a dart gun for Josh from Aaron, a warming rice bag for Sara that Savannah made for her, a Disney princess art set for Sara from Grandma Sorensen, Nate's very own box of construction trucks from Grandma Sorensen, and Savannah's hat from Grandma Sorensen (which appears on her head in every picture taken from Christmas on out).
Then came time for the gifts from Mom and Dad. Each child just had one present from us. We saved them for the last, then had them all open them at the same time.
The older kids got theirs opened first and started to piece together the phrase. Savannah took control, "Mine says We". Aaron (a little confused) said, "I just have a T and a O". Sara offered up her "going" and Josh showed his "are". Savannah put them together, "We are....We are going...We are going to..." Then she yelled with excitement to Nate (who was still trying to find a place to rip into his wrapping paper), "Nate! Where are we going to?". They all rushed over to Nate and helped him get his box open, and found the word Disneyland.
They started screaming and jumping around, "We are going to Disneyland!" I was filming it all, and from behind the camera I added, "Today. We are going today." They screamed, "Today?!!". Savannah yelled, "I think I'm going to cry!" I called out from behind the camera, "I am crying!" (and yes, as I relive this in writing, I'm crying again). It was wonderful. And then the chaos of packing ensued. I had made packing lists for each of the kids, and gave them the lists and let them pack their own bags (Scott and I helped the little boys).
We paused the packing to go to church (we just had Sacrament meeting), then we came back home and finished up the packing. I was really quite stressed about remembering to pack everything and making it to the airport in plenty of time (our flight was at 3:30 that afternoon), but it all came together.
We had planned this trip months ago, and before making definite plans, we had asked Scott's sister if she would be willing to take care of Owen for us while we were gone. We knew if we took him with us, he would be miserable, and so would we. She was more than happy to help. But as the week approached, Scott's dad was still in the hospital and the stress of that was mounting on everyone. So in an effort to save her a nervous breakdown, we came up with a last minute alternate plan.
I asked my next door neighbor if she would be willing to take Owen for us (just three days before our trip), and she didn't even hesitate to say yes. She has two kids (a girl age 9 and a boy age 6). She would have loved to have more kids, but hasn't been able to have more, so she was actually really excited about getting to have a baby for a week. When we dropped Owen off Christmas afternoon, she said that her kids had asked Santa for a baby. She hadn't told them about watching Owen (our kids play together, and she didn't want them to say something and ruin the surprise), but on Christmas Eve they actually had said, "Maybe Santa will bring us a baby!" So as I said a tearful goodbye to my baby, I knew he was in good hands and would receive plenty of love while I was gone.
And so we set out on our amazing week in Disneyland. It's going to take a lot of posts and lots of pictures to sum up our week, and it's probably going to take at least a week for me to have time to report on it all, but it's something I want thoroughly recorded to help us always remember this Christmas.
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